Number seven on the list of highest grossing movies since President Obama took office is "The Dark Knight Rises" ("TDKR"), the 2012 release from Warner Bros., which earned $1.085 billion in worldwide box-office revenue. TDKR is the latest in the highly successful "Batman" series, and the 3rd movie in the series to feature Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman. TDKR is, of course, non-original work. And, like the other non-original movies reviewed in this blog thus far, the casting department at Warner Bros. remained consistent to the level of diversity, or lack thereof, of the previous Batman movies. Even Morgan Freeman, the most prominent non-white actor in the series, stayed at number 7 in the IMDB cast list, the same position he occupied in the last film: "The Dark Knight." While there are other non-whites in the cast, they play very minor characters - most with names like "SWAT in Dive Bar" or "Analyst #2."
So why care about this issue? After all, the point of business in a capitalist society is to return an investment to the shareholders. TDKR certainly did that. But could it have done better? According to a study performed at UCLA's Bunche Center for African American Studies, television shows with diverse leading cast members and writers draw larger audiences than those with less diversity. The Bunche Center analyzed 1,000 shows across 67 cable and broadcast networks from the 2011-2012 season. According the Bunche Center Director, Darnell Hunt, the study is one of the first of its kind.
TDKR ended with a teaser that, despite retiring Christian Bale and his character Bruce Wayne, the Batman series will continue. Hopefully Warner Bros. reads the Bunche Center study before they go into production with the next Batman installment.
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